261
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
June 1932
fidence in the flesh—and the flesh always balks at this. Blue is the color of heaven, and faith has to do with heaven and heavenly things. It is the ordained means of connection between the blood of Christ and the individual soul. It is by and through faith alone that the blood can be applied and re demption appropriated (Heb. 4 :2 ; 11:6). You must have hyssop. You must have faith; by this alone can the blood be applied. T he B lood as a T oken The blood was God’s token to Israel that He had pro vided a way of escape from His righteous judgment. The shedding of the blood and death of the lamb were tokens of God’s abounding love to His covenant people. The cross is the token of God’s love, not only to a covenant people, but toward the whole world (John 3 :16). The blood of the lamb on the house was a token to God as well as to man. It was a token to God that His claims against the first born in that house had been met in the death of the little lamb, the substitute which He Himself had provided. When a sinner claims the death of Christ for himself and by faith offers it to God, the blood comes up before Him as a witness that His claims against that sinner have been met and fully justified in the death of Christ as the sacrificial Lamb ordained by His grace. The blood on the house was a witness to God, that the people had taken Him at His word. The moment the people took God at His word by ap plying the blood, they reached a turning point; from hence forth it was no longer a question of what they should do, but what God would do. Equally so when I claim the blood of Christ and take shelter under it, from that moment the issue is up to God. It is then a question of what He can and will do. In taking God at His word, we make it an issue of His faithfulness and power. The blood on the house was a challenge to,God. The blood claimed by the sinner is a challenge to God to fulfill His promise, cleanse and save that soul from judgment. G od P assing O ver God said whenever He saw the blood on the house He would pass over. “ And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy, when I smite the land of Egypt” (Ex. 12:13). It was not when the people saw the blood, but when God saw it. They could not see the blood at all; for when the Lord passed through Egypt at midnight to slay, they were inside the house. The salvation and security of the people depended upon God’s view of the blood. Let it be remembered clearly that it was not the per sonal merit nor individual character of any first-born Is raelite that brought salvation that dark night in Egypt, but the blood o f the lamb. It was the blood of the lamb that appealed to God and stayed the judgment. Just so is it true today. Your personal merit and character will not appeal to God nor save you. The only thing that will appeal to God and allow justice with sheathed sword to pass over you will be the blood o f the lamb —the blood of a crucified Christ claimed by simple faith.
The lamb was provided for the next neighbor. '■*Knd if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house take it” (Ex. 12:4). This tells you the salvation that is in Christ cannot be exhausted. Your household, great as it may be, is too lit tle by the side of this Lamb of God. There is enough for you and your neighbor. Go out, therefore, and share it with your neighbor, the neighbor “ next unto your house.” This is prophetic of the Great Commission which bids us go out and preach the gospel to “ every creature” (Mk. 16:15). T he B lood of the S lain L amb The blood of the slain lamb must be applied to the house. “ And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts, and on the upper door post [not on the lintel, the blood must not be under the feet, the Israelite and his feet must be under the blood] of the houses, where in they shall eat” (Ex. 12:7). Unless the blood of the lamb were applied to the house, it would have no saving value to those inside. The Is raelite might have the basin full of blood, but if it had not been applied to the house, then the death angel would have gone in and smitten the first-born. The death of Christ is of no saving value unless you apply it to your house, claim it for yourself, claim the death of Christ as your sacrifice for sin, and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself on the cross as your personal Substitute under the judgment due to you. It must be the blood of a slain lamb. A live lamb on that night would have been of no avail. The first-born man might have tied it to the door post and told every passer-by that it was a lamb without spot or blemish. He might have said it was the best lamb that ever came into the world, but unless he slew that lamb as his victim, unless he ap plied the blood to his house, went in under the shelter of the blood, and with closed door waited till the morning, he would have been slain unto the death. Christ as He lived on this earth is of no value to you as a Saviour. You may study His spotless, perfect life, you may be entranced with the beauty of it and speak of it to others in the loftiest phrases; nay, you may set it before you as a model and seek to govern your daily life by it. But unless you claim Him as your substitute and get under the shelter of His sacrificial and atoning blood, you will be damned with all your good works and all your efforts to follow His earthly life. T he A pplication w ith H yssop The blood must be applied with a bunch of hyssop. “ And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason” (Ex. 12 : 22 ). The word translated “ lintel” should be rendered, “up per or overhanging cross beam”-—a part of the door above the head and not under the feet. The hyssop is an insignificant plant that grows out of the wall. It has no power in itself, it is of avail only by what it gets on, is a little bitter to the taste and of a bluish color. It was the means, the nexus, of communication be tween the blood and the house. Hyssop is the symbol of faith. Faith is nothing in itself. It is of value only by what it rests on. Put your faith in a broken bridge or on a sandy foundation, and it will not sustain you. It has in it the sense of bitterness.; for when rightly exercised in re lation to divine things, it means the repudiation of all con
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